Book Worm: Communion With The Triune God - Part 1

Throughout the realm of the blogosphere I have noticed a trend in which a particular blogger will offer his thoughts and discussion on a particular book they happen to be reading through. Tim Challies has pretty much every Christian that reads a blog reading through J.C. Ryle's book Holiness and Tony Reinke over at the Shepherd's Scrapbook was for a time trotting through Calvin's Institutes. I like the trend, and since I am working on being more disciplined myself, I thought it best to work my way (and write my way) through John Owen's masterpiece On Communion With God. Kelly Kapic and Justin Taylor have given the modern Church a great gift in re-editing Owen's to be a bit more reader friendly and the good folks at Crossway books have seen fit to publish it. If you so desire, I would encourage you to pick up a copy for yourself and be challenged and blessed in reading about how to have a deeper walk with God. Now on to my thoughts for the Preface and Chapter 1:

Owen in the preface merely states that the title itself is enough introduction into the material of the book. This book was borne out of his sermons and the aim of his writing is to help the Christian learn to have communion with each member of the Trinity. Think about this now, because up until I read this chapter it was not obvious to me. Owen is calling the believer to a specific, personal relationship with each, individual, unique member of the Trinity. Have you ever thought of how to walk in relationship with God the Father and God the Son and the Holy Spirit? I haven't. Owen points out that we are to have a distinct relationship or communion with each member of the Trinity and thus know Him better and glorify Him more fully.

Chapter 1 is given to the foundational building of understanding of what communion with God is, and where it starts in communion with God the Father. Three questions are answered;

1) What is the believers relationship to God?

2) How can one have communion with God?

3) What is communion with God?

What is the believers relationship to God?

Owen simply answers this by taking us to 1 John 1:3, "and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." The believers relationship to God is one of fellowship and the fellowship that the believer has is with the Father and with Christ.

How can one have communion with God?

How then does a believer enter into this communion with God? The answer is God brings us into this communion with Him. Owen states that, "By nature, since the entrance of sin, no man has any communion with God. He is light, we darkness; and what communion has light with darkness? He is life, we are dead—he is love, and we are enmity; and what agreement can there be between us? Men in such a condition have neither Christ, nor hope, nor God in the world." Yet it is God who acts to bring us into union and communion with Him. God acts by sending Christ to be our sin, to take our penalty, to take our death upon Himself to bring us into communion with God. We have communion with the Father through the Mediator, Jesus Christ.

What then is communion with God?

Having established that believers have communion with God, and that the only means into that communion with Him is on the basis of Christ's mediating work we have to ask the question, what is "communion with God?" Owen's declares that our communion with God is His, "communication of himself unto us with our return unto him of that which he requires and accepts, flowing from that union which in Jesus Christ we have with him."

Communion with God is his revealing of Himself to us with our appropriate, obedient response back to him with flows out of the relationship we have with Him because of the cross-work of Jesus Christ. God demonstrates or reveals who He is to us, we respond in worship and obedience because we have been born again by faith in Christ's atoning death on the cross.

How to respond

Owen holds forth the Gospel in this first chapter and makes it very clear to me that unless God saves me, there is no communion with Him. Unless Christ comes and dies and lives again and reveals the glory of God to me, I am dead in my sins and eternally separated from God forever. So this chapter is one to bring forth rejoicing at what Christ indeed has done to bring me into union with God, so that I might have communion with Him. In fact Owen closes this chapter by stating that, "both he that writes, and they that read the words of His mercy, may have such a taste of His sweetness and excellencies therein, as to be stirred up to a further longing after the fullness of his salvation and the eternal fruition of Him in glory."

I pray that that very thing happens in my life as I read and ponder this book. I pray that God would open my heart more and more to His greatness and "sweetness" and that I would see His glory and "excellencies" and from that I would long more and more after Him and desire to know Him more and more. I pray that God would give me new eyes and new views of who He is so that I might glorify Him more and more.